Three months, three completely different kinds of boating. A month-by-month guide to Sydney's summer water, plus the one place you should not go in January.
By early November the water off Sydney is warm enough to swim in and the crowds have not arrived. School is still in. The harbour on a Tuesday feels like it belongs to you. If you get to choose your allocated days, this is the month to take more of them than you think you need.
Store Beach, tucked behind North Head near Manly, is the classic November anchorage: reachable only by water, part of Sydney Harbour National Park, and off-limits to dogs because little penguins nest nearby. Chowder Bay and Athol Bay under Taronga are a short run from Rushcutters Bay. From The Spit you barely need to leave Middle Harbour at all — Sugarloaf Bay, Bantry Bay with its public moorings inside Garigal National Park, and the sand at Castle Rock are all within twenty minutes.
November also catches the tail of the southbound whale migration. You are not permitted to approach them and you do not need to; sit still with the engines off and let them decide how close they want to be.
December turns the harbour into an event venue. The Sydney to Hobart fleet starts from the harbour on Boxing Day and the spectator fleet that goes with it runs under managed exclusion zones. New Year's Eve is tighter still: NSW Maritime controls the anchoring areas and exclusion zones, permits and positions are spoken for well ahead, and turning up on the night hoping to find a spot is not a plan.
The practical consequence for a syndicate owner is simple: these are the most contested days in the whole allocation year. If Boxing Day or New Year's Eve genuinely matters to you, rank them accordingly when the cycle opens rather than hoping to pick them up on a swap in mid-December.
The alternative is to accept that the harbour belongs to everybody for those three weeks and go somewhere else. A December Wednesday in Pittwater is emptier than a December Wednesday in Rose Bay, and considerably more pleasant.
January is when the whole city is on the water at once, and the answer is either to go further or to go earlier. Further means Pittwater and the Hawkesbury: Refuge Bay in Cowan Creek with its waterfall at the beach, America Bay, the narrow silence of Jerusalem Bay, and The Basin at Coasters Retreat, where the National Parks moorings, the netted swimming enclosure and the campground make it the most family-proof anchorage in New South Wales. Currawong and Mackerel Beach are quieter still.
Earlier means using the morning. Sydney's summer wind is a routine: glassy at seven, a north-easterly filling in from late morning, 15 to 25 knots across the harbour by mid-afternoon, and an occasional southerly buster arriving like a slammed door. The day that works is away by eight, anchored by ten, and back on the mooring before the breeze has properly established itself.
Anchor early too. Refuge Bay and The Basin are full by mid-morning on a January Saturday, and the public moorings are first-come — there is no booking system that will save you.
For owners berthed at Sanctuary Cove, summer is the Broadwater and the sheltered water behind South Stradbroke Island: Tipplers for lunch on the sand, Wavebreak Island down by the Seaway for a swim, and the shifting channels around Jumpinpin to the north for anyone who enjoys reading water carefully. From Brisbane and East Coast Marina, Peel Island's Horseshoe Bay and the Tangalooma wrecks off Moreton are the summer standards.
The genuinely useful thing to say about the Whitsundays, though, is that November to January is the wrong time to go. That is the wet season, it is cyclone season, and it is marine stinger season. Whitehaven Beach in a stinger suit in 34-degree humidity is not the photograph you had in mind. If Airlie is on your list, aim for May through October and take the southern summer somewhere else.
The single biggest determinant of whether a summer trip is good is the time you leave the berth, and the second is whether you checked the swell direction rather than just its height. Two metres from behind is a nap; two metres on the beam for an hour is a mutiny.
For BSA owners the rest is logistics that are already handled: the boat has been cleaned, the levy has already covered the servicing, and 33 maintenance days a year keep the summer season from being the one where something breaks. Your job is to nominate the right days when the cycle opens, and to leave early enough to enjoy them.
November, for most people. The water is warm, the school holidays have not started, and the anchorages that fill in January are still quiet. February and early March are a close second for the same reason. December and January are the busiest weeks and the most contested in any allocation cycle.
Only within the areas NSW Maritime designates, and those positions go early. Treat New Year's Eve as something you plan months ahead when the allocation cycle opens, not something you decide on the day. Turning up on the night hoping to find a gap is not a plan.
No. That window is the wet season, cyclone season and marine stinger season all at once. May to October gives you the south-easterly trades, clear water and no stinger suits, which is when the Whitsundays are worth the trip. Take the southern summer somewhere else instead.